With mentors dying, Catholic priest tries to save diocese from virus
CIUDAD NEZAHUALCOYOTL, Mexico — The priests of Nezahualcoyotl died in quick succession.
Father Antonino. Father Álvaro. Father Juan. Father Gustavo.
The loss of four spiritual brothers — plus a beloved deacon — over five weeks last spring was almost too much to bear for Julio César Ponce, the youngest priest in the Catholic diocese in this working-class city of 3 million just east of Mexico's capital.
He wept alone in his small apartment, thinking about how the men had died in isolation, without even receiving their last rites.
"We couldn't be with them in their ultimate moment," Ponce recalled. "We prayed for them, but we couldn't accompany them."
He thought about Gustavo, who had been his professor and mentor in seminary, who often told his pupils, "Being a priest means being close to the people."
But what did that guidance mean during a pandemic, when being together had proved fatal?
The priests were dying because they had continued with their duties, baptizing babies, hearing confession and praying with the sick.
"There was a
